Thursday, October 5, 2017

Bourbon Ambassador

That time I became a Makers Mark Bourbon Ambassador.
If you follow the Kentucky bourbon trail, you will get a chance to taste bourbons at the Makers Mark Distillery. Not only can you taste and wander the beautiful campus but also you can sign up to be an Ambassador. Therefore, I did. It’s very easy as long as you are over 21 years of age. You can sign up on the iPad kiosk they have in the ticket office. What do you get as ambassador? Swag but the coolest is the plaque with your name on it that is assigned to a barrel. When it comes of age, you can order bottles from you barrel. How cool is that?
We are lucky enough to live a short (well it’s an 8 hour drive) drive to Kentucky. We took advantage of that and decided to go on the Bourbon trail tour. Makers Mark had a Chihuly Glass exhibition and a dinner paring. And of course who doesn’t want Art, food and bourbon.
Our day started at Roses then on to Wild Turkey, Woodford Reserve was next where we had lunch on the grounds before the tour and tasting. The last stop for the day was dinner at Makers Mark.

Three fabulous courses paired with bourbon cocktails. We had a cocktail made with cask strength bourbon (cask strength means WOW thats strong). It was the best Old Fashioned I’ve ever had and it could knock you off your feet. The meal consisted of quail salad, chicken on a bed of creamed corn and then bread pudding. The pre-dinner cocktail was a bourbon slushy of sorts. Bourbon, Ale 8 and a little bourbon cherry liqueur at the bottom. What a way to start the dinner.

After dinner you were free to wander the grounds, all the buildings were open. If you were lucky, you could get a sample of sour mash (the hubby actually got to taste it). In the gift shop if you can dip your own bottles, glasses, hats cookie cutters and just about anything, you wish. They make nice souvenirs.
As the sun was fading, the distillery turned off the lights and lit up the Chilhuly glass. WOW! It was beautiful. Reds and yellow oranges, Blues and clear glass on one. A boat full of colorful glass, red glass baskets in the quiet of the distilling room. But most of all was the ceilings that he is famous for. Four cherubs that were hiding and you needed to find them.